Children's understanding of psychiatric hospitalization.

The authors summarize the results of what they believe to be the first systematic study of children's concepts of their own psychiatric hospitalization. They found that children 6-12 years old are able to gain progressive insight into their problems and the roles that therapeutic staff (doctors and nurses) play in treatment. These findings provide new information about the child's point of view and cognitive understanding of psychiatric hospitalization, illness, and treatment. The findings suggest that preadmission legal hearings addressing the child's understanding of the nature of psychiatric hospitalization would not be meaningful.